New York City nurses have held a vigil to mark the deaths of their colleagues since the city became one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots in the global pandemic, and to warn that they are still working without vital protective equipment. Dozens of frontline health workers marched outside Lincoln hospital in the Bronx carrying placards that read “We work sick, you get sick” and “Patients before profits”. More than 10,000 people have died in the city from the coronavirus, among them an untold number of doctors, nurses and medical support staff. With jobs that bring them into close daily contact with the virus, and a continuing shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the risk for healthcare workers other patients they treat is especially high. “They’re seeing people die around them,” said Henry Rose, field director for the public hospitals represented by the New York State Nurses Association, which organized the vigil and represents 37,000 members across the state. Officially, 27 healthcare workers have died in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but officials acknowledge this is probably far short of the true toll. At least six nurses working in New York City have died so far during the pandemic, according to the NYSNA. They include Theresa LoCoco, 68; Susan Sisgundo, 51; Freda Ocran, 51; Aleyamma John, 65; and Yaw Asante, whose age was not disclosed by the union, of which the nurses were members. Kious Kelly, 48, is believed to be the first nurse to die of Covid-19 in New York. He had recently left NYSNA to become an assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai-West. The five NYSNA nurses who died during the pandemic were described as “loved by all” and “selfless”, serving on the frontlines even as some expressed concerns about protective measures. Theresa LoCoco, 68, was a pediatric nurse in Brooklyn at the Kings County hospital center. Like many of her colleagues, she worried about testing and protective gear. “Shock and disbelief are my feelings right now,” said Norma Wilson, a colleague of LoCoco, who had worked in public hospitals since 1972, told NYSNA. “As a new graduate, I had the pleasure of working with LoCoco, as she was called (we called each other by last names only at work). LoCoco always had the biggest smile, no matter how busy the pediatric units were. She was loved by all.” Susan Sisgundo, 51, was a neonatal intensive care nurse at Bellevue hospital, the city’s flagship public hospital, before she started treating Covid-19 patients. She was being treated at Queens hospital, where she died on 8 April. Sisgundo was an immigrant, originally from the Philippines. Sisgundo “went out of her way to greet people”, her colleagues said, in a GoFundMe page set up to collect money for her cremation and repatriation to the Philippines. The crowdsourcing effort has raised nearly $15,000. “We can all still hear and see her frequent laugh and smile, and appreciate her efforts to connect with everyone.” Freda Ocran, 51, was the former head psychiatric nurse at Jacobi medical center in the Bronx. She was originally from Ghana. Her friend Dinah Bampoe called her a “selfless individual” who “died doing what she loved”, a NYSNA memorial said. “She had concerns, especially with working with patients and other staff and how long it was taking to be tested,” Kwame Ocran, 25, told the New York Post about his mother. Another nurse, Yaw Asante, worked at the hospital in the Bronx where the vigil was held. He had previously cared for New York City inmates. He left behind a wife and three adult children, including a daughter and twin sons. Aleyamma John, who died on 7 April, was a 43-year member of the NYSNA, the group said. She had worked at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation and moved to the NYC Health + Hospitals system in 2003. Though the number of people visiting hospital emergency departments in the city has slowed, the case load inside intensive care units remains high, and nurses still face shortages of masks and gowns. Rose said nurses were facing intense pressure to work with severely ill Covid-19 patients, even when they might not be trained in intensive care, and that in some cases that pressure had turned into abuse. “You’re getting managers who call people selfish, and stupid, and maybe they’re not ‘real nurses’,” Rose said. “This is all the while people have inadequate protective equipment.” All five of the NYSNA nurses who died worked for public hospitals operated by New York City Health + Hospitals, the city’s public health corporation, the union said. Public hospitals have been swamped by the crisis, as the 11 hospitals operated by NYCH+H disproportionately serve people hardest-hit by the pandemic – low-income and minority New Yorkers. One such example is Elmhurst hospital in Queens, one of the most inundated by the crisis. The neighborhood’s high proportion of recent immigrants, “essential” service workers, high-density housing and low-income families made it one of the geographic centers of the outbreak. In New York, as long as nurses don’t have symptoms, they are expected to come to work, even if they are positive for Covid-19 or suspect they are infected, according to New York City health department guidance. Nurses are now required to bring a doctor’s note to receive paid sick time. “Nurses are the heart of NYC Health + Hospitals and their safety during our Covid-19 response is a top priority,” the corporation said in a statement. “We currently have the supplies needed for all of our staff, but are fully cognizant that there is a nationwide shortage of supplies … However, every healthcare worker in our system who needs PPE is able to receive what they need.”